The Book of Maguss
by ArielLightner
Summary: "Dragons! Horses! Mystery! And the Black Stag still lives! We thought he was defeated, but no! He lives on!" - D.C.
1. The Book of Maguss

The bell tinkled.

In a small, unimportant alley in a small, unimportant city stood a smaller, less important store. A girl sat in a chair behind a counter, reading a book while another girl walked in, carrying a large crate.

Lanva, the girl behind the counter, looked up from the book that she was reading, which was a large book with the title _Celestrian Mythology for Fools_ printed in gold letters on the green binding. The tall girl who had entered the shop stood uncertainly in the entrance. Lanva could see that the crate in the other girl's arms was filled with books.

Well, of course. Nobody had yet walked into the bookshop with a crate full of kittens.

" _The Letter_?" asked the girl, sounding breathless and shy.

Lanva nodded.

The tiny secondhand bookshop had no sign on the door, and that sometimes confused new customers. The sign had been stolen half a decade ago and had never been replaced. It didn't matter. The display of books in the window drew in curious passersby, and the old customers already knew where the shop could be found.

"I can drop these books off here, then?" asked the tall girl who'd come in. She tossed her head to throw her long brown hair out of her eyes. Her eyes were green, and Lanva thought they looked gorgeous. "You'll take care of them?"

"Of course we'll take care of them," said Lanva. "But don't you want to know how much we'll pay?"

"Oh, no, that's all right," said the other girl. "My family's looking to get rid of them. My grandmother's just passed on. She had so many books we don't know what to do with them all. We were hoping someone would take them off our hands. The people who bought her house thought of this shop and told me to bring them here."

"I'm sorry about your grandmother," said Lanva, eyeing the crate of books. They had been packed neatly in the box, but it would still take Lanva a good few hours - if not days - to sort through them all.

The other girl gave an embarrased shrug and sad smile. "It's alright. She was getting - well, old. We will miss her, but… well… " The girl trailed off. "Take good care of her books," she said, gently laying the crate down on the bookshop floor. "She was _very_ fond of them."

"Of course," said Lanva, trying to be reassuring. "Don't worry, we'll find the nicest homes for them."

She felt oddly like she was reassuring someone who _had_ dropped off a crate full of kittens.

The girl left the bookshop.

The bell tinkled.

Lanva put down her book of Celestrian mythology and stood up. She'd never been able to resist the lure of looking through a fresh delivery of books. She went to kneel by the crate and began picking up the books and leafing through them, one by one.

 _A People's History of Armaretto_. That was a common one, and in brand new condition it would sell for two silver coins. The next book that she picked up was an atlas. It was heavy, and it looked old. Lanva opened it and checked the date of publication. Fifty three years old. This book wasn't likely to sell. Lanva put it into a separate pile. It would be on sale in the five-copper-coins bin for two weeks, and then tossed.

And what was this? A new book. In all of her life, not even during her six years of work at _The Letter_ , had she ever seen a book like this. It was wrapped in a deep blue cover, which was silky and soft to the touch. Lanva traced the silver letters with her fingers, struggling to read the words spelled out by their swirling font.

 _The Book of Maguss_.

Somehow the words had a familiar ring to them, as if she'd heard them before but had forgotten them. Lanva turned the book over in her hands. She stroked the cover. How smooth. It even _felt_ beautiful. She opened it. There was no writing on any of the pages, which were perfectly creamy white. Untouched.

She hesitated. It didn't seem likely that a blank book would sell. She didn't know how much money to sell it for, or which section to add it to.

The bell tinkled. Lanva looked up. But no one was there.

She looked back down at the book in her hands. A chill passed through her, unexpected, unbidden.

Lanva stood up, the strange blue book still her hands.

She couldn't do it. She couldn't part with it. She'd add a few silver coins to the register. It wouldn't be _stealing_. Not - exactly.

She opened it up. She didn't know why. She knew it was blank.

But this time it wasn't.

Printed on the page she'd opened up to, right in the middle of the book, were printed the words, in tall black letters that shone dark against the creamy white -

 _BE WAIRE THE BLAK STAGG OF DOOME_


	2. The Brokyn Worlde

Lanva walked quickly through the slippery streets of Woodruff. She'd wrapped her arms around the book, and held it pressed close to her chest. Both in the hope that no one would look closely enough to see what it was, and to protect it from it from the splash of the puddles that she walked through on her way home from the bookshop.

She entered her apartment. It was a quiet place, one room with a single bed and several large piles of books. Lanva put the book down on her bed and stood there for a while, looking at the book.

 _Beware the black stag of doom_.

Okay, she was bewaring.

Now what?

She sank to her knees, folded her arms on the bed and laid her head down on her arms, so that her face lay against the blanket.

She sat there a long time. Dreaming. Thinking. Hoping that maybe when tomorrow came she would awaken to find herself living in a different world. Maybe through the night her dreams would awaken and come true.

Later that night, she sat in her bed with the book on her lap. A burning lamp sat on a small table near her bed.

With some hesitation, wondering what she would find this time - another warning, or more blank pages? - she opened the book.

Another message. But not a warning this time. An instruction.

FINDE THE STOREIS

She reread the line a few times, then turned the page.

Nothing.

She turned the next page.

SEARTCH FORE THE MAGUSS AMONGST THE SHATTRES OF THE BROKYN WORLDE

She turned back two pages.

The lamp's light cast a yellowish gleam on the blankness of the white page.

She flipped ahead two pages.

Nothing.

She turned the next page.

Again - nothing.

But just as she was about to close the book and put it away, the flicker of a shadow caught her eye. As if the book was signalling to her. She flipped to the page where the shadow had seemed to emanate.

ANDE SAIVE THEM

She flipped through the book, searching for another hint. A warning. An explanation. _Anything_. The pages stayed stubbornly blank. All of them. The book would not reveal another one of its secrets tonight.

Lanva slammed the book shut in frustration. She tucked it under her pillow, blew out her light and lay down in bed. She curled up under her blanket, which was comfortably warm from her body heat.

She remained awake for a long time, the darkness of the night thick around her. As hard as she tried to figure out the book's riddle, her mind came up empty, again and again.

How could she save anything without knowing what it was?


End file.
